It is a federal policy where Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) refuses to process any low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) that have an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

The government implemented the freeze to align the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) with local labor market needs, forcing employers in high-unemployment areas to prioritize hiring Canadian citizens and permanent residents first.

The updated Q2 list came into effect on April 10, 2026, and will remain the standard until the next scheduled quarterly update on July 10, 2026.

Ten new regions were added: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Drummondville, Montréal, Kingston, and Peterborough.

Lethbridge, Red Deer, Kamloops, and Chilliwack saw their unemployment rates fall below 6%, meaning low-wage LMIAs will once again be processed in these cities.

The critical threshold is 6.0%. If a CMA's unemployment rate hits 6.0% or higher during the quarterly assessment, it is added to the refusal to process list.

As of April 10, 2026, there are exactly 30 Census Metropolitan Areas across Canada where the federal government will not process low-wage LMIAs.

Because Vancouver's unemployment rate hit 6.5%, any low-wage LMIA application submitted for a job in the Vancouver CMA between April 10 and July 9 will be refused processing, unless an exemption applies.

Yes. Critical sectors like primary agriculture, construction, food manufacturing, hospitals, nursing care, specific in-home caregivers, and dual-intent PR applications are entirely exempt from this freeze.

No. The low-wage LMIA processing freeze only targets positions paying below the provincial median hourly wage. High-wage LMIAs continue to be processed normally regardless of local unemployment rates.

To be considered a high-wage LMIA in Ontario (and thus bypass the freeze), the employer must offer a wage of at least $36.00 CAD per hour.

In British Columbia, the median hourly wage threshold separating low-wage from high-wage streams is $36.60 CAD per hour.

The federal government updates the list of frozen regions on a quarterly basis (every three months) using the latest labor market and unemployment data from Statistics Canada.

The current list is valid from April 10, 2026. The next scheduled quarterly update is expected to occur on July 10, 2026.

No. Occupations under primary agriculture are strictly exempt from the refusal to process measure, as they are critical to Canada's food supply chain.

While Montreal was technically added to the federal freeze this quarter, Quebec already has an overarching provincial moratorium on processing low-wage LMIAs in the Montreal and Laval regions until December 31, 2026.

Yes. LMIAs that are specifically submitted to support a Permanent Residency application (dual-intent) are exempt from the freeze, even if they are for low-wage positions in a frozen CMA.

To be exempt from the low-wage processing freeze, a short-duration position must be for 120 calendar days or less, and it must meet specific criteria defined by ESDC.

Employers can either wait for the next quarterly update, increase the offered salary to meet the high-wage threshold, or look into LMIA-exempt hiring pathways like the Francophone Mobility Program.

Yes. With rapidly changing rules, fluctuating provincial caps, and quarterly processing freezes, an RCIC ensures you don't waste time and money submitting an LMIA in a frozen region or missing an eligible exemption.